I hope Kirchhoff does not take his nightmare debut to heart in the same way.

He has played for Germany at Under-21 level, and also for Bayern Munich – you don’t play at those levels if you are a bad player.

Maybe he was thrown in at the deep end, maybe he is not 100% match fit because he has hardly played for six months, maybe the Premier League came as something of a shock to the system, and maybe he had a bit of bad luck thrown in.

The important thing from his - and Sunderland’s - point of view is that he bounces back from this.

Because Sam Allardyce has brought him in to stiffen up Sunderland’s defence which, as I’ve said many times this season, has been the root cause of their troubles.

Between now and the end of the season, Kirchhoff might well help them to stop giving so many goals away.

I know in modern football, people will always rush to judgement, and time is a luxury for players and management.

But it would be unfair on Kirchhoff to judge him on a half-hour appearance as a substitute.

He needs to build up his fitness, and I can see Big Sam has begun to work on that by playing him in a training ground game this week,

Then, when he’s ready, he needs a few Premier League games before we can decide how he fits in.